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One of the features of this very blog that I find equally fascinating and nauseating are the visitor stats. I can see how many people have been reading and where they are in the world; this is the part I find fascinating. The nauseating part comes in when I get to see exactly which pages… Continue reading Writers aren’t neurotic. Not at all. NOT AT ALL.
Recently, I listened to a fantastic programme on radio four about probability and coincidence. The show itself detangled the eeriness of coincidence and exemplified the probability arising instead. This led to a reminiscence of my favourite bookish coincidence about Claire Fuller, audio books and writing festivals. I have a lot to thank the kind folk… Continue reading An Audible Coincidence
One of the most daunting parts of publication is the wait for reviews. As with all greatly anticipated events in my life, I found the hardest part to bear was the anticipation itself. Knowing people were reading the novel I had spent four years pouring my soul into was like waiting outside the headmaster’s office… Continue reading One-Star Company
There has been a lot said about this new prize over the last week, particularly on Twitter. For those unaware of the controversy, the Staunch Book Prize promises an award for a crime novel in which no woman is beaten, raped, murdered, stalked… you get the general idea. My work often involves the very crimes… Continue reading My two cents on the Staunch Prize
I have started and abandoned this blog four times so far, each entry not seeming quite right, quite honest enough. I could feel something growing beneath my breastbone, some truth I couldn’t quite wheedle out of myself (I am painfully aware, as I write that, how awfully pretentious that sounds) and it took that many… Continue reading Facing up to my procrastination
I have just sent an email to my editor at Hodder, Emily Kitchin. Attached to the email was my completed, copyedited manuscript. In other words, I have just sent back what should be the final edit. The book is, theoretically, done. Last night, as soon as I made the last tweak to the MS and… Continue reading Never go…back
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest: they’re all littered with a particular kind of message that never fails to turn me cold. The kind that is no doubt designed to be read aloud in a boasty sneer and declares: “Those who can’t tell they’re from their from there are disgraceful failures and should be shot.” If these were… Continue reading Forgive me, reader, for my many sins.
